Overview: IDC expects spending on cloud server and application management software will total more than $3 billion by 2016 as IT customers of all sizes and across many industries embrace more efficient and automated datacenter operations strategies.

Often, the first step in this journey focuses on
implementing an in-house private cloud environment to enable self-service provisioning for
end users. Traditionally, the provisioning of physical and virtual servers has been a complex, time-consuming multistep process. However,using entry-level private cloud automation tools, many IT organizations can standardize and streamline the process, reducing the time from order to provisioning completion from weeks to less than 15 minutes.

Getting started with private cloud automation can be challenging. IT teams are often under significant pressure to deliver value quickly and need private cloud automation solutions that can validate the business case with a minimum of delay or business
disruption.